Opposition Letter Cji Sir Eci Election Commission Conduct

Twenty-three Opposition parties on Tuesday sent a letter to Chief Justice of India Surya Kant appealing for the judiciary’s intervention over the conduct of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), “biased conduct” of elections by the Election Commission of India (ECI), and “manipulation” of election results.

Sources said that parties such as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that are not in the INDIA bloc have also signed the letter along with Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Samajwadi Party, and other parties.

The content of the four-page letter revolved around the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across the country, and its alleged misuse by the Election Commission of India to favour the ruling party, sources said.

“We have appealed to the Judiciary to intervene because when all fails, Indian democracy looks at the Judiciary. Our letter includes specific examples from different states on how the SIR was being misused. While the larger theme is SIR, we have mentioned other election-related malpractices too and examples from different states,” said a source.

Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said that on June 8, the INDIA Janbandhan meeting was attended by 21 political parties and one Independent member, during which a decision was taken to send a joint letter to the Chief Justice of India regarding the SIR process of the Election Commission of India and other related issues.

“In accordance with this, a joint letter signed by 23 political parties and one independent member has now been sent today to the Hon’ble Chief Justice,” he said in a post on X.

Ramesh added that the Opposition parties remain firmly committed to SURE – Solidarity (Unity), Unity (Oneness), and REsistance (Resistance).

During a meeting of the INDIA bloc earlier this month, five major decisions were taken by the Opposition bloc, including to send a letter to the CJI.

The other decisions included continuing the demand for Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, and to hold another meeting of the bloc in Hyderabad in two months.

Asad Rehman is with the national bureau of The Indian Express and covers politics and policy focusing on religious minorities in India. A journalist for over eight years, Rehman moved to this role after covering Uttar Pradesh for five years for The Indian Express. During his time in Uttar Pradesh, he covered politics, crime, health, and human rights among other issues. He did extensive ground reports and covered the protests against the new citizenship law during which many were killed in the state. During the Covid pandemic, he did extensive ground reporting on the migration of workers from the metropolitan cities to villages in Uttar Pradesh. He has also covered some landmark litigations, including the Babri Masjid-Ram temple case and the ongoing Gyanvapi-Kashi Vishwanath temple dispute. Prior to that, he worked on The Indian Express national desk for three years where he was a copy editor. Rehman studied at La Martiniere, Lucknow and then went on to do a bachelor's degree in History from Ramjas College, Delhi University. He also has a Masters degree from the AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia. ... Read More